A man who was involved in a fraud in which an Ipswich woman in her 70’s lost her life savings will be sentenced next month after being convicted by a jury.

Before Ipswich Crown Court was 49-year-old Helal Uddin, of London, who had denied possessing criminal property but was found guilty by a jury which took less than an hour to reach its verdict.

Adjourning sentence until March 16 for a pre-sentence report, Judge David Goodin said the victim had lost her life savings as a result of the fraud, although he accepted Uddin had only allowed his bank account to be used to launder £4,675 of the money.

“It’s plain from the evidence that you allowed yourself to be used by more sophisticated criminals,” he said.

During Uddin’s two day trial the court heard that the victim was contacted in 2015 by a man who said he was a detective from Scotland Yard investigating fraud on her bank accounts.

He persuaded the victim to withdraw £4,675 from two accounts and deposit the money in an account belonging to Uddin.

The man had then continued to contact the victim and persuaded her to withdraw a further £37,000, claiming it would be held securely by Scotland Yard until the conclusion of the fraud investigation,

“This was a series of lies and she fell hook, line and sinker. The male wasn’t a police officer and once she handed over all the money she heard nothing more from him, said Daniel Taylor, prosecuting.

Two days after the victim deposited the £4,675 in Uddin’s bank account he withdrew the money and the following day the account was closed.

The court heard that Uddin attended a voluntary police interview and accepted that the account the £4,675 was paid into belonged to him.

He claimed he had been approached by a man he knew as Hussain who claimed he could help him get a loan to fund his daughter’s wedding.

The man subsequently told him the loan had been approved and the money was paid into his account.

Uddin said no repayment terms were discussed and when he returned from his daughter’s wedding he unsuccessfully tried to contact Hussain and discovered his account had been closed. He denied acting fraudulently.